HEATHER DUNE MACADAM'S first book, was RENA'S PROMISE: A STORY OF SISTERS IN AUSCHWITZ, is a memoir about the 716th woman in Auschwitz. Published by Beacon Press in October 1995, and nominated for the National Book Award, the Christopher Awards, the American Jewish Awards and the National Library Association Awards. RENA'S PROMISE has been published in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Japan and Germany (where it was book of the month in Sept. 1997). Ms. Macadam is active in fighting against Holocaust denial social networks by disseminating Rena's story through YouTube, MySpace and her fan club on Facebook.THE WEEPING BUDDHA, Ms. Macadam's first novel, was released by Akashic Books in 2003. Based in part on a true story it is the fiction that attempts to deal with an unsolved mystery in Ms. Macadam's life and was nominated for an Edgar; it was a finalist in the Nero Wolf Awards (2004); it was also a finalist for Best Mystery in the Lambda Awards (2004). As commentator for NPR, Ms. Macadam's quirky essays can be heard on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Additionally, she has been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, Marie Claire, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, YOU Magazine(Sunday Supplement to Mail on Sunday), The Advocate and RACING HOME: SHORT STORIES BY AWARD-WINNING NORTH CAROLINA WRITERS (Paper Journey Press) where one reviewer referred to her as "an archangel with an avenging pen." Ms. Macadam began her career as a performance artist and dancer with the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Company. After an accident prematurely ended her performing career she began writing. Dancers are fairly quiet people but since she discovered writing, she hasn't shut up!She studied writing with Pulitzer Prize winner, Jules Feiffer; humorist, Roger Rosenblatt; Kaylie Jones, and Booker Prize nominees, Gerard O' Donovan and Brian O'Doherty. She has been awarded SCAD Presidential Grant for Research (2006) to conduct research on the poet Phillis Wheatley, a PEN American stipend (1997), THE WINSTON-SALEM EMERGING ARTIST GRANT (1996), OUTSTANDING WRITER OF THE YEAR in North Carolina (1995), and THE RONDTHALER AWARD for poetry (1993). She divides her time between New York and Herefordshire, England, and is a frequent visitor to Hay on Wye and the Hay Literary Festival.